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White House mulling options on Gitmo

By DONOVAN SLACK

05/01/2013 02:21 PM EDT

Press secretary Jay Carney said the White House is currently considering administrative actions President Obama can take to help push the process of closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay but said he will ultimately need cooperation from Congress.

"One of the options available to us that we’re examining is re-appointing a senior official at the State Department to renew our focus again on repatriating or transferring detainees that we determine can be returned to their own countries or third countries," Carney said. "And we will also work to fully implement the periodic review-board process, which has not moved forward quickly enough and we're going to continue to work to get that implemented so that it is up and standing."

His remarks come one day after Obama vowed a renewed pushed to close Guantanamo. As POLITICO's Josh Gerstein reported Tuesday, the issue has not been a policy imperative for the administration for years.

Carney asserted that it is not the White House that has prevented the facility's closure but rather lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

"We have obstacles that were thrown up by Congress that prevent us from, well, they refused to provide the funding that would allow us to transfer detainees to incarceration facilities here in the United States," he said. "And they have circumscribed our ability to take action on this front in other ways. So we have to work with Congress and try to convince members of Congress that the overriding interest here in terms of our national security, as well as our budget, is to close Guantanamo Bay."